Getting Tech to Do What You Want

Getting Tech to Do What You Want

We repeatedly get great hardware these days. It can do all sorts of useful things. But the associated software is awful. I have complained about most these issues before, but it's interesting to collect them.

For phone issues, I can only address Android. And I can't say anything about Android Auto - it was too unreliable when I tried it.

First a hardware issue. On laptop computers, why can't I get a touchpad on the right side (or left). Why does the horrible compromise of in the middle completely dominate the market?

Back to software.

Time Zone

When I'm traveling, I need my clock to show me what time zone I'm in. I don't know the time if I don't know the time zone. But do phone clocks display the time zone? No. My solution - Ravitz Software Clock Widget. This is my software, free, for Android only.

No solution for iPhone based on my limited experience with an iPhone 12.

Linux desktop - just format the time display to include the time zone.

Poor Control of USB Music

I like to use a USB drive in my car to play music. I can fit a huge library of music on one drive with no need to deal with radio, satellite radio, disks. The user interface is typically awful since they are pushing satellite radio and car touch screens are difficult to use, but I can live with that. But. When I want the songs played in random order - select "Random". But that selects the next song by selecting at random from the songs on the list. That is not the same as playing the songs in random order. By the the time you are halfway through the list, there is a 50% chance that the next song will have already been played.

The software people could select at random from the songs that have not yet been played. Or there is a simple algorithm to randomly order the list. But the programmers have never used the software so they don't know that there is an issue (speculation). And anyone higher in the chain of command at the manufacturer is selling cars, not software, and knows that the music software cannot rise to the level of preventing you from buying the car. The solution is a long and winding road. Here goes.

Set up your phone to automatically connect to the car. A USB cable connects music and power, but this is a pain. A Bluetooth music connection and cordless charger/phone mount is better. Now you can play music from your phone (and take phone calls) via the car sound system.

But what if you are using Maps on your phone. Now the navigation instructions come through your car sound system, at a MUCH higher volume than the music (in my car). Maps has an option to not send its voice through Bluetooth. But it often doesn't implement this immediately after starting a route. So the first instruction is played very loudly through the car sound system. But Android has the ability to let the sound output of one app go to a specific output device. Look for "separate app sound". Set up Maps to output to the phone (instead of Bluetooth). Now music goes to the car sound system, Maps always goes to the phone speaker. But Maps doesn't silence phone music while talking. So, set up Maps to not talk via Bluetooth AND set up Maps to always output to the phone. Now Maps interrupts the music, so no conflict. It works pretty well.

Phone Gestures

I dislike phone gestures. They are invisible so you must work to find the gesture to function association. And they wear on my fingertips, making my fingertips annoyingly touch sensitive. Fortunately Google kept the navigation bar as an option when they switched to gesture navigation. Settings - Display - Navigation bar.

Many apps let you turn off gestures. But it can take some effort to set up.

Digital Assistants

I hate digital assistants (starting with Microsoft's Clippy). By not configuring the Android assistant or Bixby (Samsung), I thought I had suppressed it, until the home button popped it up. Search the Android settings for device assistance app, digital assistant app, or try Settings - Apps - Default apps - Digital assistant app and set it to none.

Names

When I'm looking in a list of names, I want distinctive names - that would be last names. And I often need to look for myself - my name, not "me". Android FairEmail gets this right. Desktop Gmail does not and has no configuration to fix it. I haven't used Android Gmail in a long time and don't remember its usage.

Always On Screen

On my Samsung S23 the always on screen is too dim in low light. There is an adjustment, but that removes the automatic aspect of it and it still doesn't get bright enough. This appears to be a case of save the battery at the expense of useful function. Why not let me make that choice?

And the next alarm is not displayed. When using the phone as an alarm clock, the next alarm is important.

Both of these issues were handled well on my Pixel 4A. Samsung was a leader in always on displays. Now they are way behind.

Phone Call Volume

Sometimes the phone is too loud. On every mobile phone that I have owned. You can adjust the volume, but not low enough. Why is this a hard thing to handle?

Mice

Mice have been around for decades. I often want to move the mouse only horizontally or vertically. Why is there no software that recognizes motion in only one direction. I often want to move the mouse a very small distance, but the scaling factor that controls mouse ticks to cursor motion can't be easily changed. Why not?

This could be done in the operating system software. Dedicate two buttons for horizontal and vertical control. The buttons would rotate the scale between 0, 1, 1/10 times the nominal scaling factor.

A Good Use for Artificial Intelligence

Why not use AI for automatic expansion of acronyms. Imagine how much time it would save, when reading a news article, to not have to look up and scan a hundred possible expansions of an acronym to find the one that the article is referring to.

Meanwhile

A headline from Android Police - "Android is changing its brand identity once again". They are capitalizing the A and changing the font. Are they taking a cue from politics? Distract people from the problems that they do not address. But it would be so easy to fix most of these issues. I don't understand.

Good Things, Almost Forgotten and More

Good Things, Almost Forgotten and More

Good Things, Almost Forgotten 

• Phones that didn't get constant, buggy software updates and didn't need to be rebooted, ever
• Highways that aren't under constant reconstruction
• Buttons and knobs for controlling cars and electronics
• IBM/Lexmark buckle spring keyboards
• The Beverly Hillbillies - now on MeTV every weekday
• Butter Rum Lifesavers - still available but not on my diet
• Altoids sugar free cinnamon chewing gum
• Dentyne Pure sugar free chewing gum

Great Novelists Gone

• Terry Pratchett - don't miss anything - early, Discworld, and more
• Isaac Asimov
• Michael Crichton
• Kurt Vonnegut
• David Gemmell - maybe not great but fun (MNGBF)
• David Eddings - MNGBF - ignore anything after The Belgariad/Malloreon series

Great Novelists, No Longer - Over ten years to write a sequel?

• George RR Martin
  
• Patrick Rothfuss - meanwhile publish the most boring book of all time

Great Novelists, No Longer - After reading many of the books by these authors, I couldn't get through the Kindle free sample of their latest.

• Christopher Moore - Noir
• Orson Scott Card - The Hive
• Joe Abercrombie - The Trouble with Peace

Great Novelists, Where Are You?

• Margaret Atwood
• Michael Sullivan - MNGBF

Old Songs From People That I Otherwise Rarely Listen To

• American Girl - Tom Petty
• Authority Song - John Mellencamp
• I Was Made to Love Her - Stevie Wonder
• Little Bit of Soul - The Music Explosion
• Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
• Pretty Flamingo - Manfred Mann
• Standing in the Shadows of Love - The Four Tops

Some Things Have Gotten Better

• Dishwashers with pod detergents
• Unscented and dye free liquid clothes washer detergent
• Memory foam mattresses
• Crosscut paper shredders
• Carbon fiber and titanium for mechanical things
• Computer and TV displays: CRT -> flat screen CRT -> LCD -> OLED
• Cordless (battery powered) vacuum cleaners and power tools

Best Forgotten

• Checking account balance books - all my stuff is in a spreadsheet now
• Compact fluorescent light bulbs, and soon, hopefully, all fluorescent lights
• Paperback books - impossible to read while using your hands for other things
• Full size American sedans, with minimal shock absorbers
• Fins and wings on street cars
• Typewriters
• "Rechargeable" Nickel Cadmium batteries

And a Few Things That Should Disappear

• Air blower hand dryers
• Automobile sunroofs, mandatory with other options that are important
• Scented detergents and air fresheners
• Internal combustion engine powered lawn mowers, string trimmers, and leaf blowers

Samsung Galaxy S23

Samsung Galaxy S23

Rather than risk total insanity trying to use the fingerprint reader on my Samsung S22, and having read a review of the S23 that said it had a much improved fingerprint reader, I switched to an S23. I had also tried facial recognition on the S22, but found it failed about as often as the fingerprint reader.

So the S23, after just a few days of use - much better fingerprint reader - larger area of operation, faster, more reliable.

The internet seems faster with the S23. Maybe the new processor or maybe the 5G radio works better. I Heart Radio seems to run much better when I'm out walking - much shorter dropouts.

The S23 is very close to the same size as the S22. In a thin case, it fits nicely into my Turtleback belt case. I have used this case for years with a Pixel 4A and the S22. It's getting a bit ragged around the corners, but still works very nicely. By far, the best phone case that I have owned. And the long life and real leather justifies the price (currently $40 on sale, usually $65).

MagSafe covers are now available for Android phones. I tried a Torras. In addition to the magnet ring, it has a ridge around the back edge that lets the phone lie flat on a table. The ridge adds a bit of thickness but it still fits in my Turtleback belt case.

Samsung Android has an app called Game Booster that puts a settings icon on the screen that is quite annoying. To my knowledge, you cannot disable it on the S23, despite many internet posts that tell you how to disable it on other phones. You get either the settings icon, a gray bar that expands into a settings menu, or notifications that complain that Game Booster is not allowed to be on top of other apps.

The always on lock screen is too dark in dim places and doesn't update quickly after removing it from a case. You have the option of automatic brightness control or a specific brightness setting. Neither of these work well. It needs to be automatic, adjusted by a base brightness. This seems to be a case of save the battery at the expense of useful function. Samsung - please let me choose that compromise. And as with the S22, no next alarm display.

Moving to the S23 was not too bad. Samsung has an automated app to copy everything from your old phone. A few settings don't get passed along. Nova Prime and File Manager Plus didn't copy - easily fixed.

So the S23 is a big improvement over the S22. I feel sorry for people who are stuck with an S22 for two years.

2023-07-21 - after a month - the fingerprint reader on the S23 is far superior to the S22. It works almost every time. A clumsy location compared to the back of the phone on the Pixel 4a, but I can take it off my list of life's annoyances.